The Fantasy by Taylor Napolsky

                Nicolas Henderson CC



The Fantasy

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Living a life of the mind, the kind nobody can tell.

She was sitting at a table alone. A stranger asked her, suddenly, if she needed a bus ticket.

“...need one?”

She thought about this, for a split second. She didn’t need a bus ticket. She shook her head no, and said, practically whispered, “No.” She had a book; she had her phone; she had her coffee; she had a mood that... The mood fluctuated.

The stranger was shaking, perceptibly. People try to sell things, do whatever they can to scrape by.

She said to herself, at an even quieter whisper, “I wish nobody had to scrape by.” It was a quiet fantasy. A fair fantasy. And (maybe the best part) it was simple.

Later on that day she texted her friend, It is nuts right now, with all these shootings.

Her friend texted back that it hurt her heart.

She wanted to get rid of guns—also simple. That might do the trick. Statistics—they’re simple, in a certain kind of way.

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Taylor Napolsky’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in journals such as The Lindenwood Review, Impossible Task, Unlikely Stories, and others. They live in Seattle. Visit them online at taylornapolsky.com.